Death toll mounted across Syria as Turkey scrambled a fighter jet on Friday after a Syrian helicopter shelled the Syrian town of Azmarin near their common border, an official told AFP.

“The fighter jet took off from Diyarbakir base in the southeast after (Syrian) regime forces sent a helicopter to shell Azmarin which was seized by rebel forces,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

A shadowy jihadi group believed to be linked to al-Qaida fought alongside rebels who seized a government missile defense base in Syria on Friday, activists said, heightening fears that extremists are taking advantage of the chaos to acquire advanced weapons.

Videos posted online Friday said to have been shot inside the base said the extremist group, Jabhat al-Nusra, participated in the overnight battle for the air defense base near the village of al-Taaneh, east of Aleppo in northern Syria. The videos show dozens of fighters inside the base near a radar tower, along with rows of large missiles, some on the backs of trucks.

Turks must not allow Ankara to commit fratricide in Syria: Iran cleric

Hojjatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi pointed to the border tensions between Turkey and Syria and said, “Such moves show that Turkey is following a Western and NATO plan to weaken or destroy an anti-Zionist and anti-American Muslim country which is a thorn in the side of the US and the Zionist [Israeli] regime.”

Tehran's interim Friday Prayers Leader went on to add that Iran considers Turkey a Muslim country which should not be following NATO orders.

“Instead of helping insurgents, it (Turkey) should be trying to convince them (insurgents) so that the initiated reforms can be reinforced and national solidarity is created,” Seddiqi added.

The UK military has deployed its personnel to the Kingdom of Jordan, where US special operation forces have been preparing the ground for a military onslaught against neighboring Syria under the disguise of training Jordanian forces.

The deployment of British troops to Jordan and the presence of an initial contingent of 150 US military planners there could raise the possibility of a “mission creep” as the crisis in Syria turns to become a proxy war, with terrorists fighting the popular government of President Bashar al-Assad receiving direct support from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar and indirect backing from the US and its NATO allies.

A prominent military analyst says the United States is deeply concerned about the alliance among Iran, Iraq and Syria and their stand against Israel, Press TV reports.

“There are deep concerns within the US that a coalition between Iran, Iraq and Syria will stand against Israel and Turkey which frankly is their long-serving surrogate since Ottoman times,” Gordon Duff said in an interview with Press TV on Friday.

A major US airbase in Afghanistan has come under rocket attack while a US-led airstrike has killed four Afghan civilians in the east of the war-ravaged country, Press TV reports

On Friday, ten rockets hit Jalalabad Airport, which is used for military purposes by US-led forces. No immediate reports of casualties emerged after the rocket attack on the airport, located in eastern Afghanistan.

No group has yet claimed the responsibility for the attack although similar incidents are usually blamed on Taliban militants.

Separately, four Afghan civilians were killed and nine more injured in a US-led airstrike in eastern province of Ghazni. Local officials said the strike hit residential areas in the town of Andar in Ghazi Province. They said the victims included two women and as many children.

Rebels battled to hold onto Syria's main northeastern highway on Friday as government forces fought insurgents on several fronts across the country.

The rebels captured an air defense base east of Syria's biggest city, Aleppo, and government forces unleashed air strikes and artillery bombardments on the western city of Homs, activists said.

On the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkey scrambled two fighter jets after a Syrian military helicopter bombed the Syrian border town of Azmarin.

The incident was the latest sign that tension between Ankara and Damascus is surging at a time when the 19-month-old conflict is deepening with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough and growing concerns that it could spread across the Middle East.

Lebanon's state run news agency says three members of an al-Qaida-inspired group have escaped from a prison in eastern Beirut.

It was not immediately clear how or when they managed to stage the getaway from the high-security Roumieh prison.

The National News Agency identified the men as a Palestinian, a Syrian and an Algerian. It said they are members of the militant Fatah Islam group, which fought the army inside a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon in the summer of 2007.

A senior police official confirmed Friday's escape but declined to give details.

Several Fatah Islam members have escaped Roumieh over the past two years by scaling down the prison's walls using sheets tied together.

Russia says Syria plane carried radar equipmentRussia said on Friday the Syrian plane intercepted by Turkey on a flight from Moscow was carrying a cargo of dual-purpose radar equipment but insisted that Moscow did not violate any laws.

"This cargo is electrical technical equipment for radar stations, this is dual-purpose equipment but is not forbidden by any international conventions,"

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in the Russian government's first public remarks about the nature of the cargo.

Standing up to Bashar al-Assad is one thing. Picking a fight with Vladimir Putin would be something else entirely.

By forcing down an airliner flying from Moscow, and publicly accusing Russia of ferrying military equipment to Damascus, Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has taken what may prove to be the biggest gamble yet in his Syria policy.

The incident risks damaging a carefully nurtured relationship with an irascible Russian superpower at a time when Ankara needs all the friends it can get.

A meeting next week of the Syrian National Council to admit new anti-regime factions into the main opposition bloc has been postponed until early November, an SNC official said on Friday.

The delay comes after the umbrella organisation was flooded by requests from groups wanting to join it, SNC official Anas al-Abdi told AFP, adding that the meeting will now take place in early November instead of on October 17.

what I find strange is that the Arabs/Ismams/Muslims do not stand together .... look at Jordan, saudi, Turkey etc ...

they side with the USA and provoke war against their own religion and support and supply the 'rebel terrorists'with money and arms/ammunition

fucking hippocrates if you ask me... and seems to me that Islam/Muslim are backstabbers, greedy, easy to 'buy' and dont give a shit about their own people/ religion

but suppose it all boils down to 'money'... or am i 'missing' something here?

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 20129820

Yes, if you look at some of the rebels, they seem very good trained, and some of them according to dutch journalist, who was kept by the rebels some weeks ago, and later released, said to the media, "most of the rebels have english/us accents.

Reports suggest that the Syrian government is using helicopter gunships, and conducting violent raids, in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo.This action comes as the Free Syrian Army appear to be celebrating their key advances in key regions, and taking over border posts.